A Pot Pie by Any Other Name...

So I started off with a plan--lots of veggies, chicken, a savory sauce, a nice top layer of crust. I even had two different recipes marked to follow, but as is typical, I wandered off and made something pretty unrecognizable to the makers of the recipe. The one really appealing factor in this recipe is that while I ate it all week long (it made enough for 11 lunches/dinners, and I added veggies to my eggs a couple of breakfasts as well), there was quite a bit of variation in what was on my plate. A versatile base, with lots of ways to build off of it. Take this as a model and build your own!

Ingredients:

 Veggies:

1 small acorn squash
8 oz baby bella mushrooms
1 red pepper
1 red onion
2 bunches asparagus
4 small carrots
4 stalks celery
1 large head cauliflower
2 small bunches broccoli
4 small red skinned potatoes 
1 clove roasted garlic

Meat:

2 chicken thighs
2 chicken breasts

Sauce:

chicken broth
1 tbs butter
1 tbs olive oil
3 tbs flour
1 1/2 tsp thyme
1 tsp ground mustard
1 tbs spicy brown mustard
dash cayenne pepper
Salt and Pepper to taste

The first step is epic amounts of chopping--each vegetable needs to be diced pretty small, so it will be small in the pie. I had pre-roasted the squash and cooled and peeled it. Once that was prepped, I heated the butter in the pan and added the butter and oil to make a roux. That cooked until nice and golden, and I whisked in the broth and the seasonings and let thicken. Then I added the longer cooking veggies--the carrots, potatoes, onions, celery, peppers, mushrooms, cauliflower. The chicken was chopped and added along with some more broth (I shouldn't have added as much as I did, next time I'd go easier on it.) This cooked down until the chicken lost that pinkness, and I added the broccoli, asparagus, and squash. This continued until the chicken was fully cooked, and the veggies had a little bite.

I divided the mixture into individual oven proof dishes (a new purchase that I LOVE--got them BOGO in a 6 oz and 12 oz sizes) After I'd split them up, I changed my mind and ended up just cooking 4 pies the first day and baking off 3-4 at a time through the week. The rest of the filling went into the fridge.

I used 4 completely different toppings for my top only pies--phyllo dough sheets, cauliflower mash, yogurt biscuits, and cornbread stuffing. The most successful, in my opinion, for eating over the week were the ones topped with the mash and the stuffing. Each baked for 15-20 minutes until the tops were done.

The Verdict: This is a comfort food classic for a reason--it is warm and satisfying. The variety of veggies provide a nice contrast of textures and flavors, and it allowed me to give into my desire to experiment whole heartedly. I love that I can eat a huge bowl of veggies, and have room for a biscuit or stuffing!

A Morrocan Beef and Vegetable Tagine

So I'm once again venturing outside of my cookbooks and my comfort zone to try something new and different. Inspired by my bright and sunny jar of lemons slowly being salted on the counter top, I ventured to North Africa to make a rich and savory Tagine--though I should say a stew since I made it in my crock pot not one of these gorgeous dishes. I don't have any cookbooks with Morrocan recipes in it, but with two key ingredients in mind and a little google-fu I found a bunch of ideas and made this dish up as I went along. This is largely inspired by Jamie Oliver's recipe as interpreted by this blog post. I made a number of changes and additions--but it is essentially a stew, so it is pretty flexible!

Ingredients:

12 oz beef sirloin steak
1 1/2 lbs butternut squash pealed and chopped
2 cans diced tomatos
3 cups vegetable broth
1 yellow onion
1 medium head cauliflower
1 large egg plant
4 cloves garlic
1 small bunch cilantro
Sea Salt and freshly ground Black Pepper
2 tsp  Ras El Hanout Spice mix
2 tsp ground Cumin
2 tsp ground Cinnamon
2 tsp ground Ginger
2 tsp Sweet Paprika
Harissa to taste

 The first step is to prepare the dry rub. I was surprised to find the ras el hanout at Winco--and it was 2$ for the whole jar--that is not a lot! I had the rest of the spices--though this cleans me out of cumin and ginger, both of which I use a lot of in my cooking. I cut the steak up into cubes and tossed it in the spice rub. Ideally, I would have left it in the fridge for the seasoning to really infuse the meat. But I didn't get going until too late--and it was only in the fridge for about an hour.

The meat is lightly browned on all sides and then diced onion is added along with the chopped stems of the cilantro. These are sauteed until they slightly softened and then I slowly added the broth to de-glaze the pan. There was so much of the spices that sort of stuck to the pan that this was an important step--it toasted the spices and got them into the broth, which thickened it.

At this point I poured it all into the slow-cooker, along with two cans of diced tomatoes. The original recipe called for garbanzo beans, but I felt like I had enough protein with the beef and enough fiber from all the veggies. That got stirred up pretty well, and cooked for two hours on high. While that cooked I pealed and chopped the butternut squash and cut and salted the eggplant.

I added half of the butternut squash after 2 hours of cooking, and the rest after 3.5 hours. This allowed some to really break down and become part of the sauce, while some still had some texture left at the end. I also added some of the harissa to the pot to increase the spice.

While that continued to cook, I chopped the cauliflower and tossed it with some harrisa and lemon juice to marinate before being added to the pot. That went into the pot at the same time as the rest of the butternut squash. The eggplant, which doesn't need as much time to cook was added at about 4.5 hours.

At this point it was almost 9 p.m. and I was pretty hungry--though I'd been nibbling on the butternut squash and tasting the beef all along. I stirred in more harrisa, and served it with some chopped fresh cilantro on top. Total cooking time was 6 hrs on high, though it should have gone a bit more. to get the beef equally tender.

The Verdict: This is a rich and hearty stew--with very complex and developed flavors from all of the time cooking. The veggies provide a variety of textures, from some very soft butternut squash, to the cauliflower that still has some bite. Some of the beef was really tender and some was still pretty chewy--I think this is more the type of beef I used, I should have gotten more of a fatty cut and cooked longer and lower. It was still very good and I'm excited to play around with these flavors!

Colorful Cauliflower 2 Ways

The first thing I ever made with cauliflower was a quick and simple soup--healthy and delicious. This is a variation of that first soup I made, a little more fancy, with a lot of flavor. I found colored cauliflower on sale at Winco and couldn't decide between the purple or the orange, so I bought both! I didn't want to put them both in the soup, because that sounded like a grey gross disaster, so I cooked them in two ways and combined at the end. This recipe is my invention, though I've taken inspiration from a few places.

Ingredients:

2 medium heads cauliflower
8 oz brown mushrooms
1 yellow onion
1 thai chili
10 oz chopped spinach defrosted
5 cups homemade chicken stock
Chinese 5 spice powder
1 head garlic
1 tsp olive oil
2 chicken breasts, 2 chicken thighs
12 oz plain greek yogurt
rice wine vinegar




I added about 1 tablespoon of the five spice powder to the yogurt and a few splashes of the vinegar to thin it out. That was poured over the chicken and half of the mushrooms, and the purple cauliflower that I sliced into thick slices. That marinated for a while to work the flavors in. I saw this technique on an Alton Brown Good Eats episode, though I didn't follow his specific recipe or even the full technique, which used a cooling rack and water under it to steam the cauliflower.

After that marinated, I placed the purple cauliflower and half of the mushrooms and the chicken thighs on a cookie sheet greased and lined with tinfoil. I covered the pan and placed it in a preheated 375 degree oven for 10 minutes and then removed the foil to continue cooking. I also roasted a head of garlic

While that was cooking, I chopped up the onion , pepper, and mushrooms and sautéed them in a pan to soften and then added the chicken breast to the pan to cook. At the same time I heated up the chicken stock in a large pan with some of the Chinese 5 spice and once it came to a boil I added the orange cauliflower roughly chopped into somewhat even pieces. It will be pureed so it doesn't matter really how it looks, just so it cooks evenly. That cooked for about 8 minutes, or until tender but not mushy.

Once the cauliflower was cooked, I drained the broth into a container to keep for thinning the soup. Then I added in the chicken mixture, and the drained spinach and the head of roasted garlic. Then I used the immersion blender to puree it, adding in the broth a bit at a time so it was fully incorporated. It was pretty thick, so I ended up adding more water to get a good consistency and then letting it simmer for a while.



The purple cauliflower came out of the oven once it was soft with some crispy browning (I did turn them all over about midway in the process) The chicken took quite a bit longer, which I wasn't prepared for, but I've not a lot of experience cooking chicken thighs on the bone. The cauliflower and mushrooms were very good and I snacked on quite a bit!

I served the soup on the bottom, topped with some of the cauliflower, mushrooms, and chicken thighs.

The Verdict: Spicy and delicious, with a rich and hearty taste and enough texture and heft to really fill you up. This is a cauliflower soup that I don't mind eating all week long. I have made this before many times, using squash instead of spinach or roasted red pepper or kale. But this is the first time I did the roasted cauliflower and homemade stock, it really elevated the dish to a new level of deliciousness. Either way this is my go to cauliflower soup recipe.

Chipolte Cauliflower Tots

I love cauliflower, and so I'm always trying to find new ways to cook it and sneak it in dishes. So when I found this recipe on skinnytaste for Cauliflower Tots I wanted to give them a whirl. I've made some really good zucchini pancakes, so I'd love to have another recipe like that. I played with the recipe a little--to change the flavor profile a bit, since I wanted to serve them with the picadillio from the same blog.

Ingredients:
1 medium head cauliflower
1 large egg and 1 egg white
1/2 cup onion
3 tbsp minced cilantro
1 diced chipolte pepper in adobo
1/2 cup reduced fat sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
salt, pepper cumin, chili powder, garlic powder to taste
cooking spray

 I ended up using the squash later that evening--but it appears in pretty much all of my pictures, even though it isn't in any of the recipes.

First the cauliflower needs to be cooked--I put it in my steamer basket with a little water, but my basket or pan was too small and it didn't cook evenly. So I nuked it for two minutes until it was tender and then drained it and dried it with paper towels. I also let it cool for a while. It needs to be chopped pretty fine--which is a lot of chopping so after trying for a little, I tossed it in my blender and let it do the hard work. This is the messiest part of the whole process, the rest of the batter came together pretty quickly.

Basically everything gets dumped in a bowl and mixed together. I made this a while before I needed to cook them, and refrigerated it. It didn't have any problems sticking together.

The original recipe called for shaping it into spoonful sized tots, but I thought cakes would be better for how I wanted to serve it. This is a bad idea--don't do it. I did two pans, one with tots and one with patties. I put them both in the oven at 400, but when I went to flip them half way they wouldn't come off of the pan. So I thought I'd pan fry the bigger ones, but I couldn't get them to cook through before they burned on the outside and then they stuck to the pan. The problem is that my stove does very low and infernally hot and burn your house down hot, no medium or medium high or medium low. This is probably user error. The tots, for all I couldn't flip them, turned out great!

The Verdict: The tots turned out crunchy on the outside, soft and cheesey inside, with just the perfect smokey and spicy bite--and were a perfect pair to my picadillio with squash. Unfortunately the patties were underdone, so I reheated them over the meat and veggies and ate it like a shepherd's pie. The flavors really worked for that--so I may make something similar intentionally. This recipe requires some work, but is worth playing around with to get another great way to eat cauliflower!